TanStack Start on Cloudflare Workers

Build full-stack TypeScript apps with TanStack Start deployed to Cloudflare Workers. Covers routing, server functions with middleware, authentication via better-auth, and Drizzle ORM with D1.

Stack Overview

•Framework: TanStack Start (stable v1.x) — file-based routing, SSR, server functions
•Runtime: Cloudflare Workers — edge compute, no cold starts
•Database: Cloudflare D1 (SQLite) via Drizzle ORM
•Auth: better-auth with session + token strategies
•Bundler: Vite 7 with Cloudflare plugin
•UI: React 19 + Tailwind CSS v4 + shadcn/ui

Project Structure

code

src/
├── routes/              # File-based routes (TanStack Router)
│   ├── __root.tsx       # Root layout — html, head, body
│   ├── index.tsx        # Landing page
│   ├── _protected.tsx   # Auth guard layout (pathless)
│   ├── _protected/      # All authenticated routes
│   │   └── dashboard/
│   └── api/             # API route handlers
│       └── v1/
├── lib/
│   ├── auth/            # better-auth config (server, client, middleware)
│   ├── db/              # Drizzle schema + queries
│   ├── middleware/       # Composable middleware (logging, cloudflare, auth)
│   └── api/             # API helpers (response builders, logging)
├── components/          # React components
├── styles/              # Tailwind CSS
└── router.tsx           # Router config — exports getRouter()

Server Functions with Middleware

Server functions use createServerFn with a composable middleware chain:

typescript

import { createServerFn } from "@tanstack/react-start";
import {
  loggingMiddleware,
  cloudflareMiddleware,
  authMiddleware,
} from "~/lib/middleware";

// Authenticated operation
export const getMySkills = createServerFn({ method: "GET" })
  .middleware([loggingMiddleware, cloudflareMiddleware, authMiddleware])
  .handler(async ({ context }) => {
    // context.cloudflare.env — typed bindings (DB, R2, KV)
    // context.session.user — authenticated user
    // context.logger — request-scoped logger
    const db = drizzle(context.cloudflare.env.DB);
    return db.select().from(skills)
      .where(eq(skills.ownerId, context.session.user.id));
  });

Middleware Chain Order

•loggingMiddleware — creates Logger, starts timer, flushes wide event on completion
•cloudflareMiddleware — exposes env bindings (DB, SKILLS_BUCKET, CACHE)
•authMiddleware — validates session, enriches logger with user identity

Typed Context

typescript

import type { LoggedAuthContext } from "~/lib/middleware/types";

// Handler receives the accumulated context from all middleware
.handler(async ({ context }: { context: LoggedAuthContext }) => {
  context.cloudflare.env.DB;       // D1Database
  context.cloudflare.env.SKILLS_BUCKET; // R2Bucket
  context.session.user.id;         // string
  context.logger;                  // Logger instance
});

Input Validation

typescript

export const updateProfile = createServerFn({ method: "POST" })
  .middleware([loggingMiddleware, cloudflareMiddleware, authMiddleware])
  .validator((data: { displayName: string }) => data)
  .handler(async ({ context, data }) => {
    // data is typed as { displayName: string }
  });

Cloudflare Environment

Bindings (wrangler.toml)

toml

[[d1_databases]]
binding = "DB"
database_name = "my-db"

[[r2_buckets]]
binding = "SKILLS_BUCKET"
bucket_name = "my-bucket"

[[kv_namespaces]]
binding = "CACHE"
id = "abc123"

Access in Server Functions

Middleware provides typed access — never import env directly in handlers:

typescript

// Correct — use middleware context
const db = drizzle(context.cloudflare.env.DB);

// Wrong — don't do this in handlers
import { env } from "cloudflare:workers"; // only for middleware internals

Type Definition

Define once in src/lib/middleware/types.ts:

typescript

export interface CloudflareEnv {
  DB: D1Database;
  SKILLS_BUCKET: R2Bucket;
  CACHE: KVNamespace;
  APP_URL: string;
}

Authentication with better-auth

Server Config

typescript

// src/lib/auth/server.ts
import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
import { drizzleAdapter } from "better-auth/adapters/drizzle";

export const auth = betterAuth({
  database: drizzleAdapter(drizzle(env.DB), { provider: "sqlite" }),
  emailAndPassword: { enabled: true },
  socialProviders: {
    github: {
      clientId: env.GITHUB_CLIENT_ID,
      clientSecret: env.GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET,
    },
  },
});

Catch-All Route

typescript

// src/routes/api/auth/$.ts
import { createAPIFileRoute } from "@tanstack/react-start/api";
import { auth } from "~/lib/auth/server";

export const APIRoute = createAPIFileRoute("/api/auth/$")({
  GET: ({ request }) => auth.handler(request),
  POST: ({ request }) => auth.handler(request),
});

Protected Routes

Use a pathless layout route as an auth guard:

typescript

// src/routes/_protected.tsx
export const Route = createFileRoute("/_protected")({
  beforeLoad: async () => {
    const session = await checkAuthFn();
    if (!session) throw redirect({ to: "/login" });
    return { session };
  },
  component: () => <Outlet />, // Just passes through
});

All routes under _protected/ inherit the guard automatically.

Drizzle ORM with D1

Schema Definition

typescript

import { sqliteTable, text, integer } from "drizzle-orm/sqlite-core";

export const users = sqliteTable("users", {
  id: text("id").primaryKey(),
  name: text("name").notNull(),
  email: text("email").notNull().unique(),
  createdAt: integer("created_at", { mode: "timestamp" })
    .notNull()
    .$defaultFn(() => new Date()),
});

D1 Constraints

•Use db.batch() not db.transaction() — D1 doesn't support SQL BEGIN/COMMIT
•Use integer with mode: 'timestamp' for dates (no native DATE type in SQLite)
•Foreign keys use onDelete: 'cascade' for cleanup

Queries

typescript

import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/d1";
import { eq } from "drizzle-orm";

const db = drizzle(context.cloudflare.env.DB);
const result = await db.select().from(users).where(eq(users.id, userId));

Vite Configuration

typescript

import { cloudflare } from "@cloudflare/vite-plugin";
import { tanstackStart } from "@tanstack/react-start/plugin/vite";
import { defineConfig } from "vite";

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    cloudflare({ viteEnvironment: { name: "ssr" } }),
    tanstackStart(),
  ],
});

Key Gotchas

•Node version: Vite 7 requires Node 20.19+ or 22.12+. Always nvm use.
•Route tree: routeTree.gen.ts auto-generates on first pnpm dev.
•CSS imports: Use ?url suffix — import appCss from "../styles/app.css?url".
•Tailwind v4 plugins: Use @plugin "@tailwindcss/typography" not @import.
•Wrangler entry: Set main = "@tanstack/react-start/server-entry".
•Peer deps: Set strict-peer-dependencies=false in .npmrc for TanStack ecosystem.